Monday, June 7, 2010

Good Luck, Bad Luck

Growing up the South, you learn a lot of superstitions. From the usual bad luck from a black cat crossing your path to making a wish after a third sneeze to wearing red on Friday the 13th.

Personally, I know it's a bunch of hogwash, but I'm a firm believer in playing it safe. No walking under ladders for me. Something may fall on my head or I might trip.

Anyway, I have an out on the black cat superstition. When I was a teenager, I owned a black cat and took pretty darn good care of Smokey (I thought). My mom never liked cats (she couldn't stand touching one while it purred...something about the vibration bothered her) and we weren't savvy when it came to shots especially for feline leukemia. Hey, this was a long time ago. Sadly, he died and I always felt whenever a black cat crossed my path, he was looking over me and I wouldn't have bad luck.

What made me think of all of this was what happened this morning. I broke a small mirror I use on occasion. I can't ell you how many times I had dropped it in the past, but for some reason it hit the floor the right way and cracked into about four pieces. They didn't fall out of the frame, but it makes it hard to use. Of course, one of my first thoughts was "Now I'll have seven years bad luck!" Then I fussed at myself for thinking something like that.

I know bad luck has a lot to do with how you look at everyday occurrences. If something bad happens, it's bad luck. But if you think of it in the right light, you can see it could be worse. So in a warped way, good luck. Suppose I wrecked my car. I would then remind myself I have good insurance and the car is repairable and "luckily" no one was hurt. Yeah, a little Pollyanna, but it will keep you from taking a nose dive into depression when things go wrong. :-)

So with the mirror, I'm happy the mirror didn't fall out the frame. Plus I had wanted to buy a larger one but since there wasn't anything wrong with the smaller one, I felt it would be a waste of money. Well, now I can buy a larger one and not feel bad about it. Silly, I know. But whatever works, I'll go along with it.

Besides, this attitude helped me today. I had a good day at work AND I received a request from an agent. It was for only 20 pages, but that's a start. It made my day.

About Me

Carla Swafford loves romance novels, action/adventure movies and men, and her books reflect that. Plus she's a rare creature in the Deep South, she loves hockey. Carla's married to her high school sweetheart and lives in Alabama.